That Time of the Month

Things'll be quiet around here, I'll be out doing Army stuff for the weekend.

THE Smile

If you haven't watched it yet, head over to New Jovian Thunderbolt's place, and watch the video of Breda shooting the Drilling.

Back?  Did you see that smile right after she touches the round off?  That's why taking new shooters out is fun (either new to the sport, or just new to the gun.)

Guess I'm Old...

The number of college kids sitting in the basement coffee house in our equivalent of a student union that are enjoying a beer at 1300 is simply mind boggling.  I know it's the season opener for the NFL, and it is Packers territory, but it's not unique to today.

I know it's slightly hypocritical of me, as I do enjoy a fine dark beer, but I think the cup of black coffee I have will be a better aid in my math class in a half hour than any lager has any hopes of...

Birdshot

Is for little birds.

I'm glad that they misguided youths decided to stop after the first shot, but make no mistake, had they been more motivated that injury would not have stopped any fight.

(h/t - SayUncle)

Smart

"I had my pistol; I wasn't going up against an automatic rifle," Ralph Swagler said. "I'm sorry. I wish I would have shot him in the back now as he was going toward IHOP, but I wasn't clear on the situation."

And I agree with Tam.  Unless I'm dating your waitress, I'm not gonna rescue you.

Boing!

Wolff springs showed up for the little P-64, about 10 minutes to install and reassemble the thing, and the difference is like night and day.

I went with the 18# hammer spring, right in the middle of what Wolff offers (they have 17, 18, and 19#.  For reference, the factory spring is 22#.)  The double-action pull has gone from 10% of the time I can't even pull it to not being bad at all.  Some take-up and no noticeable stacking; it feels like a heavy two-stage now.  Single action is very light with some stacking.

Being a semi-auto, the hammer spring does actually help slow the cyclic speed of the gun, so to help balance it back out, I also installed a 22# recoil spring (factory spring is 18#.)  This should help slow the slide down a bit and keep it from beating itself up too much.

Now I just need to get more 9x18...

No More Custom Guns for Sniper Comp

Snipers from around the world will soon shoot against each other at Fort Benning, Ga., but this year they’ll have to leave their fine-tuned rifles and high-powered optics at home. For the first time in the eleven-year history of the U.S. Army International Sniper Competition, all competitors will use the same sniper rifle and optics of equal power.

The new rules are designed to “level the playing field, so it isn’t so much an equipment race,” said Capt. Daniel Wilcox, who overseas Army Sniper School at Benning as commander of C Company, 2nd Battalion, 29th Infantry Regiment.

 (H/T KitUp)

Personally, I think it's a good idea, or at least worth trying for a year.

7 Scientific Ways Coffee Gives You Super Powers

From Cracked.

Unfortunately one of those isn't "invulnerable tongue..." I just burned mine on some.

School!!

Was out of town most of Monday, and working overnight, followed by the first day of my (hopefully) last semester of college.  Most of the sleep this week looks to be coming in about two hour chunks... should be fun.

If It Ain't Rainin'...

Went to the range after work yesterday, just in time for a monsoon.  I had checked the radar before hand, and it looked like a quick storm that would be over before I even made the 20+ minute drive, but instead it lingered over the area just as I got there.  Thankfully I found a paperback buried in the car and decided to wait it out.  After an hour or so it had died down to a dribble and I grabbed the pistols I'd brought and the steel target and a "raincoat."

At least two things were learned.  First, said "raincoat" was not, in fact, waterproof.  Just a little water resistant.  Thankfully it was warm out, so hypothermia wasn't an issue.

The other, and more important thing, is that M&P9 magazines are dang slick when you're hands are wet.  I'm rather proud that I only fumbled one reload because of this, but one's enough to have me wondering if only carrying one reload is good enough.

I never would have noticed this had I simply given up and went home.  Now, I don't usually go out of my way to shoot in the rain, actually I kind of hate it.  If I hadn't gotten the little Salute Products target I wouldn't have yesterday either (as it is, I still didn't get to pattern the 20ga for buck yet.  Cardboard and rain don't mix well.)  However, once in a while it's good to get out and shoot in that crap, and find out how your stuff works.  I know Cane & Derby will be getting an order from me soon as well after yesterday, and I'm going to do some thinking on the magazine issue.

On a positive note, the little P-64 went through a full box of Brown Bear FMJ without a single hickup.  It's snappy, as expected, and the Wolff springs can't get here soon enough.  I fired one shot double-action, and my hand was so tense from that, the next shot broke almost instantly (nearly felt like it practically bump-fired...) that needs to be fixed.  Also, Brown Bear still smells like crap.

This Cause is Good...

...'Cause!

The actual cause is Carteach's raffle helping support the Wounded Warrior Project.  Check it out, some sweet prize support going on there.

Couple Bits of Linkage

Ann Althouse - The Anguish of Coffee It can be hard to get it right before your first cup... I call this the "coffee paradox"

Best Selling Pointy Bitz on Amazon! if you can get past the branding, the BG survival knife looks to be one hell of a deal

source

Suppressors Now GTG in MI

LANSING - Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette today issued a formal Attorney General Opinion stating that State law allows the use of noise suppressors by private citizens when authorized by the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

"Michigan citizens who comply with federal firearm regulations can use suppressors to protect their hearing and minimize noise disruptions in the surrounding areas," said Schuette.

I really like the bold text in the quote.

Could Use Some...

Worked an overnight last night, crashed hard when I got home.

This looked to be good information to know though.

Just to clear up any confusion.

Know Your Roots

Dirt Rag magazine posted this video from the early days of "klunkin," which would evolve into mountain biking (you may recognize the name Gary Fisher among the guys in the clip.)

'90s Pop Music... >:P

Killing some time at the campus coffee house waiting for my registration appointment, and the barista has the music set to "'90s Pop" and it's only making me think that this particular genre of music in nothing more than the embodiment of everything you should never do musically.

Spellbound & Dead Six

Signed copies are up for pre-order at Uncle Hugo's if you're interested.  Just ordered mine.

School...

Took a semester off, registering for classes today (they start Tuesday... hopefully there's some left...)  Follow that up with work, probably not gonna be here much today.

MHI Patch Contest!

Take Two.

I was half tempted not to mention it, just to increase my chances, but that's just asking for bad karma or something.

Wow... You're Old!

In internet years anyway... Say Uncle turns 9 today.

Keep up the good work!

For the Lulz

Robb's first rejection letter.

...

Slow start and an environment not very conducive to blogging (or anything productive for that matter.)  Check back later.

20ga Buck

Managed to find some boxes of Remington No. 3 buck for the little Remington yesterday.  20 pellets per round with poly fill to keep them from getting too beat up in flight.

Hopefully get out to the range in a few days and see how they pattern in "across the room" distances.

Happy Blogiversery!

To Tam!

As my largest source of traffic outside of Google, I felt I should give some happy thoughts.

New Pistolette

New pistol arrived today.  Radom P-64 through AIM Surplus.

On top of the Eee PC for scale.

First impressions; for a gun built in 1976 it's in great shape, just a very little bit of holster wear.  The double action trigger pull is actually worse than the Nagant revolvers... so I'll be most likely picking up a Wolff hammer spring a few pounds lighter.  The single action pull on the other hand is quite nice, some take up, and a nice light crisp break.

The safety/decocker is the typical European "up for fire/down for decock/safe," and the mag release is the European heal setup, but the mag slides out nice and smooth.  I'm not a huge fan of those types of controls, but the double action pull is more than heavy enough for safe hammer-down carry, and should still be plenty after the spring change.

The size is comparable to the current flood of "pocket nines" like the Ruger LC-9, and the 9x18mm cartridge is right between .380acp and 9x19, so I'll be looking for a decent pocket holster that this little guy can ride in.

I should have a longer post in a few days with more photos, and possibly an initial range report.  If there's anything in particular you guys want to know about it, just drop a line down in the comments.

MD - Art of the Precision Rifle

Full trailer has been released.




Looks pretty good.

I love the shot of the bullet trace at about the 20 second mark too... quite sweet.

Not sure on price, but it's a 5 disc set.  If you're doing any precision long range shooting it's probably going to be well worth thinking about.

7 out of 10 Students Skip Buying Texts Due to Costs

I read stories like this and I'm very glad that the school I'm going back to in a couple weeks has a text rental program.  I think the most I've ever dropped on books in one semester was about $120, which is apparently the cost of just one "normal" text book, and the worst of which was a self published professor who infamously changed it every semester, and charged $80 for something that looked like it came from the copy center at Staples.

Legitimate Sporting Purposes

Don't exist in Great Britain.  Shooting at pictures of concentric circles is even too violent for the kiddies.

If I had kids that were getting some of those tickets, I think I'd just tell Mr. Johnson to fold them up until they're all corners, and then...

Dear Smith & Wesson;

Look at what this gentleman did, and start making them.

Failing that, if somebody can mass produce the thingy he replaced the take-down tool with, I may just track down an M&P9 Pro and do the above to my current M&P...

MSM Don't Tread On Me shirt

Looks freakin' sweet.

Gonna have to get me one.